Post navigation

My On-Screen Life

I got up early today to walk with a friend. The morning was dark and quiet, the street lamps perfectly illuminated the fire-red and orange trees. The houses that lined our lovely gridded streets were still dark and sleepy, the porch lights illuminating the pumpkins and mums. The grand white colonials with black shutters and red doors stood at attention, the Tudors took on a storybook quality. It was picturesque, straight out of a movie set.

I may be a freak, because sometimes, in moments like this, I feel that I am walking in my own movie…a sort of out-of-body experience, where I observe myself and how sublimely orchestrated and beautiful the world is.

I love those moments.

Does this happen to anyone else? The moment where you are walking down a tree-lined street, or sharing a bottle of wine with a friend, or your husband reaches to lace his fingers in yours and laughs in such a way that your mind starts searching for the sound track to go with the scene…like every detail is thoughtfully orchestrated to convey this moment. Everything slows down, and you feel yourself softening into a timeless breath that will carry you through the day?

The leaves were crunching just so under my shoes. Leaves fluttered softly to the sidewalk from the molting trees, gold and crimson confetti that made the quiet daybreak feel like an occasion. There was a posse of adorable elderly ladies in their walking gear, zipping down the sidewalk. We ran into them on our zigzagging route at least four times, each time smiling and waving like we knew each other.

It was the perfect beginning to my thursday, and my morning continued on, uncharacteristically smooth. And then I sat down to work, and performed my typical procrastinating rituals.

A refill of my coffee… probably a mistake.

I check my email…certainly a mistake.

I resist temptation to open Facebook by digging around for some chapstick.

And then give in and scroll through my Facebook feed….

Not a mistake.

I came across this lovely video, which had me grinning goofy and probably making small sighs of joy to myself in my Panera Bread armchair as I pressed the ear buds further into my ears and enjoyed.

It’s a great reminder to change things up. Do something unpredictable.

Take it outside. Find something that makes your practice a little more extraordinary today. Notice a moment where you are sure there is a perfect song to accompany the movie scene playing out before you.

Quiet down into slow motion and let one simple beauty move you to a different space of consciousness, even if it is fleeting.

That moment, strung together with all the other moments of conscious presence, is your life, your story told.